The concert's finale is said to be a duet between Madonna and Sting. Which begs the question - if Live 8 wants to attract fans of oldies like Madonna (CDs) and Sting (CDs) to the concert, won't it be more of a slow, confused shuffle than a march?

The Live 8 concerts around the world - in London, Berlin, Paris, Rome
and Philadelphia - are a great idea. They'll attract such publicity to
the cause of ending global poverty that they're bound to have an effect
of sorts.

But where Bob Geldof and the Live 8 organisers have really dropped
the ball is their selection of acts. The original Live Aid concerts 20
years ago managed to raise a lot of money, but it also succeeded in
capturing the spirit of the mid-eighties. Spandau Ballet, Billy Ocean, Adam Ant, Queen and Madonna were all in the line-up. You can laugh now, but at least they were of their time.

Flash-forward 20 years and it seems like nothing much has changed. The line-up includes Madonna, Paul McCartney, Sting, Annie Lennox, Elton John... not one of these has done anything vaguely relevant in years. Also on the London bill are The Cure - a scary old man with bad make-up, and Velvet Revolver - a dusty cut and shunt of two old bands. Is this the best we can do?

Admittedly, Coldplay are probably as popular as they'll ever be, and U2 are always inexplicably well-received. But where are the other bands of today? The Kaiser Chiefs are performing in Philadelphia, so we'll let them off. But what about Franz Ferdinand? The White Stripes? Even an appearance by shambling old Pete Doherty would spice things up a little bit, or at least stop youngsters thinking that this was a concert especially for their parents.

Listen - really call it like it is.
Live8 is a feeding frenzy for the major record companies and their artists on the Live8 concert bills - the back-end cd sales will be gigantic (just like Live Aid).

Random House has just rushed released the "Gedof In Africa" book to cash in on the frenzy.
BG sold in the program format series "Geldof In Africa" to the BBC and got his own tv production company to shoot it and preseumably has a piece of all tv sales for the series all around the world - that goes out in July (surprise surprise).
BG/Random House then release the updated BG Auotbiography "It That It"